Norwood Café being cleared on Thursday for Xavier Square development

Site preparation work continues over the next year with actual groundbreaking of Xavier Square expected towards the end of 2008 | May 1, 2008

The University continues to make progress on Xavier Square, a 20-acre extension of the University campus that will include a new fitness club, health center, student housing, and a bookstore as well as restaurants, a hotel, office space, market housing and shopping.

As part of the development, several houses along Cleaney Avenue are being cleared as well as the previous site of the Norwood Café, also called "The Woods," at the corner of Montgomery Road and Cleaney Avenue. The café site is scheduled to be cleared at approximately 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 8. J&L Management Corp. of Mt. Clemens, Mich., is handling the process.

“We are so excited about Xavier Square and the superb experience it will bring to Xavier University and our neighbors,” says John Kucia, Xavier's administrative vice president. “However, we don’t want to lose important traditions in the process. Norwood Café, better known as 'The Woods,' holds many memories for Xavier alumni and the neighborhood. We have saved much of the nostalgia, including the bar, and plan to incorporate those elements into a new establishment in Xavier Square.”

Site preparation work will continue over the next year with actual groundbreaking of Xavier Square expected towards the end of 2008 or beginning of 2009.

Xavier is partnering with Corporex Companies, the local development company responsible for the renaissance of the Covington riverfront, the Ascent at Roebling’s Bridge and the $1-billion Ovation mixed-use project in Newport, to develop Xavier Square. Development of Xavier Square will be privately funded.

The development of Xavier Square is part of a larger campus master plan that is focused on improving the academic quality of the Xavier University campus. A second separate project, which will take place on the existing University campus, includes construction of the James E. Hoff Academic Quadrangle. The Hoff Quad, named in honor of the former Xavier president and chancellor who died in 2004, includes construction of a new facility for Xavier’s Williams College of Business and a multi-faceted Learning Commons that will create a one-stop shop of integrated academic, technical and professional services for students and faculty.

The construction on a new Williams College of Business, the first phase of the Hoff Academic Quad, is expected to begin in June 2008. For more information on the Quad please visit www.xavier.edu/greatwonders.Back